Gel Nails!

My friend carina was extolling the virtues of gel nails for a bit, but since they’re more expensive, I didn’t see the need. Well, it came time for vacation, and suddenly I DID see the need. A normal manicure lasts me MAYBE a week, usually less. Gel nails are supposed to last 2-3 weeks. Perfect since I was leaving for vacation on a Thursday, but the last time I could get a manicure was the weekend before. Then I thought, well blog readers might be interested in this, so I’ve written about it for you. When you’re picking it out, gel nailpolish looks like regular nail polish, only with less selection. There weren’t many colors. Not all nail salons have gel nails, so I had to go try out a new place. Colors are basic, but my color came out pretty. The first part of the manicure is normal, filing, etc, and then the nail technician painted my nails. I had to hold a special UV type drying machine on my lap, and dry the nails between coats. She started with a clear base gel coat, then dry. She had to dry between each coat of color, and the top coat.  I felt like I was soaking up an awful lot of radiation… but then again, I do when I go to the tanning salon as well. It seemed to take a long time, but then you have to factor in the end time on normal nails. You sit under that fan drying machine FOREVER and sometimes they’re still not dry. All in all, it was the same time or less, and they were very dry when I left. The gel polish looked pretty much the same as any other polish…maybe a bit shinier and thicker. And it lasted. And lasted. The first thing I noticed to go wrong with it was that my nails were growing, leaving bare nail spots near the bed. That’s to be expected. My nails started feeling heavy. Around 1 ½ wks, it seemed like it might peel up, and by 2 weeks, it would pull up when I ran my fingers through my hair or anything like that. I had to be very careful..it really wanted to peel off. The color seemed to be getting a little off as well. But I decided to keep them on, because I wanted to get one more round of gel nails for  my next vacation, and wanted to time it just right. At three weeks, I went back to the salon.By that time, my nails were a wreck! All falling of and mostly chipped. Actually, I went to another salon that was closer. They soaked the nails then chipped the rest of it off, and put on new gel nailpolish for my NH trip. This time when they started chipping at 2 wks, i decided to just take them off myself. I didn’t feel like paying them to take them off. I soaked a cottonball in nailpolish remover and attached it to the nail with aluminum foil, then did each nail that way, and waited for about fifteen minutes. When I took them off, my polish was all squishy, and it was pretty easy to pick it off. After two rounds of gel nailpolish, my nails felt rough. The tops of them just felt scarred instead of their usual smooth.  I think that all in all, gel nailpolish is good for a vacation or special occasion type situation, but it doesn’t seem too healthy for them long run, or healthy on your wallet. A gel nail mani cost me $30 (although a lot of places charge more), vs my usual spa mani/pedi, which is $25 total. I think I’ll mostly stick to regular nail polish. Have you gotten gel nail polish? What did you think?